Turkey’s AK Party ‘short of majority’ support

Support for Turkey's ruling AK Party is little changed from a June election at 40.8 percent, a survey from pollster Gezici showed on Thursday, below the level needed to form a single-party government after a Nov. 1 vote.

In June, the centre-right, Islamist-rooted AKP founded by President Tayyip Erdogan lost its overall majority for the first time since coming to power in 2002, taking 40.9 percent of the vote.

The survey of 4,864 people held between Oct. 3-4 showed the main opposition CHP on 27.6 percent, the nationalist MHP on 15.8 percent and the pro-Kurdish HDP on 13.6 percent, comfortably above the 10 percent threshold required to enter parliament.

It estimated the prospective number of AKP MPs in the 550-seat parliament at 256, short of the 276 needed for a majority.
In the June election, the CHP won 25 percent, the MHP 16.3 percent and the HDP 13.1 percent of the vote.

The Gezici survey showed a rise in support for the AK Party compared with its previous poll in mid-September which put the AKP in 39.3 percent, the CHP at 28.1 percent, the MHP at 16.8 percent and the HDP at 13.5 percent.

The poll was conducted before a devastating bomb attack in Ankara last week at a peace rally, the worst of its kind in Turkish history, which killed more than 100 people.